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Ottavino impressed by Puig's power at plate

Ottavino impressed by Puig's power at plate

7/2/13: Yasiel Puig drills a knee-high breaking ball on the outside corner over the wall in right-center for his eight homer of the year

By Ian McCue
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MLB.com |

DENVER -- When Yasiel Puig launched a homer well over the wall in the deepest part of the park Tuesday night, it left mouths agape, not so much for the distance, but for the contact he made.

Puig took a diving slider from Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino and smoked it off the end of his bat and over the center-field wall. After throwing the rookie phenom three straight sliders, Ottavino said he was trying to leave the pitch that turned into a solo homer short of the plate, but it didn't end up where he wanted.

Still, Ottavino walked away as impressed with Puig's pure strength, noting the pitch he hit out of Coors Field is one that usually turns into a home run.

"When he hit it, I saw his bat flip, so I knew he thought he got it, but I didn't think he got it," Ottavino said Wednesday. "Then I turned around and I was like, 'Oh, I guess he did get it.'

"I really don't think he got all of it, and it went really far."

Ottavino pitched three innings of relief Tuesday, allowing two earned runs in his first appearance in a week. The right-hander did get Puig to strike out in his next at-bat, one of his two strikeouts in a 3-for-5 night.

"In retrospect, now I know that he will come off the fastball," Ottavino said. "So I probably would have thrown a fastball there or maybe really, really made an effort to throw a shorter slider, like not even reach the plate, see if he would've swung."

Ian McCue is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.